DEFENSE COMMUNITIES 360

White Sands to House Army’s Largest Renewable Energy Project

A $16.8 million contract awarded to Siemens Government Technologies will provide 4.4-megawatts of installed photovoltaic capacity at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., making it the largest renewable energy project in the Army, more than double the size of the current largest 2-megawatt array at Fort Carson, Colo.

The project, procured through an energy savings performance contract (ESPC), will generate more than 10 percent of the installation’s electrical energy consumption via solar energy by the end of 2012, saving 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity, according to Army public affairs.

The Army recently awarded two other ESPCs as well, including a $16 million project at Fort Bliss, Texas, to Johnson Controls to generate about 2.2 million kilowatt hours of energy annually from a renewable source.

Johnson Controls also was awarded a $34 million contract to install wind and solar photovoltaic systems, LED lighting, energy management control systems and other conservation processes at Fort Buchanan and 11 Army Reserve Centers in Puerto Rico.